304 Optometry, Vol 81, No 6, June 2010

management such as dispensary design, retail presentation,frame and lens inventory, industry relationships, insurancebilling, and staff management. To emphasize its impor-tance, the dispensary rotation should be a graded coursethat is independent of clinical rotations. This article detailshow NSU College of Optometry successfully implementedan optical curriculum that prepares the next generation ofoptometric practitioners.

Poster 80

InfantSEE�: A Public Health Effort to ProvideComprehensive Vision Assessments to Infants Acrossthe United States

Mark Schwartz, M.P.H., Glen Steele, O.D., FCOVD,Norma Bowyer, O.D., M.S., M.P.H., Pamela Lowe, O.D.,Walter Morton, O.D., and James Spangler, O.D.,Optometry’s Charity, TM The AOA Foundation, AmericanOptometric Association, St. Louis, Missouri

Data collected by the American Optometric Association(AOA) via 10,000 InfantSEE� assessments conductedduring 2006 and 2007 indicated the overall need forvision concern has increased from 1 in 14 in 2005 to 1 in9 in 2007. This finding shows a growing need for earlyvision examinations in infants. The data also identified 2groups at greatest risk for abnormal vision status: prema-ture and minority babies. Through InfantSEE�, partici-pating optometrists provide a 1-time, comprehensive eyeand vision assessment to infants in their first year of life,between the ages of 6 and 12 months, offering earlydetection of potential eye and vision problems at no costregardless of income or access to insurance coverage.InfantSEE� addresses the ways in which providingcomprehensive vision assessments will ensure that theinfants’ vision health is developing properly. Furthermore,this project seeks to make a concentrated effort to addressthe two identified groups at greatest risk of abnormalstatus. In addition, the InfantSEE� program seeks toaddress these priority populations with a variety of healtheducation tools.

Using various social marketing tools to address healtheducation and promotion, one goal of the InfantSEE�program is to gain further knowledge about what meansthese identified high risk populations use to take advantageof a collaborative program such as InfantSEE�. Addition-ally, the program provides needed comprehensive visionassessments for infants to ensure healthy vision develop-ment and reassurance for mothers, while providing a publichealth program for infants across the country.Executive Summary: In the fall of 2008, the American Op-tometric Association (AOA) received a federal earmark inthe amount of $430,348.00 to provide increased awarenessto the InfantSEE� project. Through the pilot project, ad-ministered through the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC), findings reveal a growing need for

early vision examinations in infants. InfantSEE� assess-ments conducted during 2006 and 2007 indicated the over-all need for vision concern increased from 1 in 14 in 2005to 1 in 9 in 2007. Data collected from this project displayan overall prevalence rate of 1 in 6 infants exhibiting acause for concern (in need of follow-up care or referralto an eye doctor). The data also identified 2 groups atgreatest risk for abnormal vision status: premature and mi-nority infants. Through InfantSEE�, a public health pro-ject managed by Optometry’s Charity�, The AOAFoundation, participating optometrists provide a 1-time,no-cost comprehensive eye and vision assessment to in-fants between the ages of 6 and 12 months, offering earlydetection of potential eye and vision problems regardlessof income or access to insurance coverage. The Infant-SEE� Week pilot project addresses the ways in whichproviding comprehensive vision assessments will ensurethe infants’ vision health is developing properly. Further-more, this project seeks to make a concerted effort to ad-dress the 2 identified groups at greatest risk of abnormalstatus. In addition, the InfantSEE� project seeks to ad-dress these priority populations with a variety of health ed-ucation tools.

Using various social marketing tools to address healtheducation and promotion, one goal of the InfantSEE�Week pilot project was to gain further knowledge aboutwhat means identified high-risk populations use to takeadvantage of a collaborative project such as Infant-SEE�. Additionally, the project provides needed com-prehensive vision assessments for infants to ensurehealthy vision development and reassurance for mothersthat their infants’ visual development is on par, whileproviding a public health program for infants across thecountry.Results: As a result of this funding, 1,051 examinationswere performed throughout the outreach efforts. Therewere 536 girls (50.9%) and 515 boys (50.1%) in this pop-ulation. Additionally, of the 1,051 infants, 145 (13.7%) in-fants were born prematurely (born before 36 weeks ofgestation) and 280 (26.6%) infants reported non-whitebackground. Of the 1,051 examinations, 180 examinationsdemonstrated a cause for concern (1 in 6). Results fromthis project population indicate a higher rate of cause forconcern than previously reported. Additionally, prematureinfants (born before 36 weeks of gestation) and infants ofminority background have a higher rate of concern: 1 in4. Finally, the data indicate that infants from lower socio-economic household income (below $25,000 annually) dis-play higher rates of concern in 3 distinct ocular healthcategories: ocular motility, visual acuity, and binocularity.In conclusion, the findings of the pilot project provide con-siderable insight into the overall visual health of infants inthis country. Although these 8 locations do not represent theentire country, there are significant findings that have beendiscovered from this outreach. Additional research and out-reach should be conducted to examine infants’ visualhealth. Further outreach efforts should be made to include

Poster Presentations 305

visual health and awareness into Maternal and Child Healthprojects on the local, state, and federal level. More impor-tantly, considerable attention should be given to the impli-cations that socioeconomic level may play a part in visualhealth. The rise of issues discovered from this project

suggests that infant visual impairment is a significant prob-lem nationwide. More awareness efforts are needed to in-form parents and children’s advocates about the impactsuch impairments have on infants and their futuredevelopment.